Which Basic Audio Fuzz should I get next?

Readers should know by now that I’m a huge fan of ’King of Fuzz’ John Lyons and his Basic Audio Imprint. I don’t believe anyone is more prolific than John - who has turned his hand to pretty much every fuzz variety there has been over the years. With a superb quality approach which marries practicality with aesthetics, extended features and superior sounds!

His current active pedal range consists of around 40 key fuzz varieties, while over the years he must have made around 100 different varieties and variations of pedals - a pretty incredible achievement all told.

I’ve been collecting Basic Audio Fuzzes for a number of years now - acquiring them from a variety of sources - mostly in the USA, but pretty much the four corners of the globe too - throughout Europe and as far afield as Japan and Singapore!

To-date I have 19 of John’s fuzzes in the collection - exactly the varieties pictured above - in those enclosures / colours :

• Alter-Destiny Fuzz (All-Rounder Modern + Articulate Big Muff)
• Foxey Lady Fuzz (Guild Foxey Lady Muff)
• Foxton Octave Fuzz (Foxx Tone Machine)
• Futureman (Colorsound Power Boost / Overdriver)
• Fuzzmondo (Fuzzrite-ish Silicon Fuzz)
• Fuzz Mutant (Os Mutantes Regulus VIII)
• Gnarly Fuzz (Maestro/Tone Bender)
• Gypsy Fuzz (KR Musical Products The Gypsy Fuzz)
• Marq Won Germanium Fuzz (Tone Bender MKI)
• Nonts (Silicon Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround)
• Orpheum II Germanium Fuzz (Germanium Fuzz Face)
• Scarab Deluxe Fuzz (All-Rounder Silicon Tone Bender)
• Shore Bird Fuzz/Distortion (ProCo Rat)
• Spooky Tooth (Neil Young Fuzz)
• Supa MKI (Marshall Tone Bender MKI with Mids push)
• Tri/Ram 5-knob Muff Fuzz (Triangle/Ram’s Head Big Muff)
• Willdcat (Gretsch Control Fuzz)
• Zippy Fuzz (Shin Ei Fy-2/Reedy/Saxophone/Horn Fuzz)
• Zonk (Si) [II] (JHS Zonk Machine II)

I’ve often said that John’s flagship fuzz is his superb Scarab Deluxe Silicon Multi-Bender. He should really make a Germanium equivalent of that too - as Germanium is so important to some of that classic Bender timbre and tonality - particularly for MKI types.

I have so many different favourites from those 19 I own - including all the 5-knob varieties - Alter-Destiny, Nonts, Scarab, and Tri/Ram. I’m also particularly keen on the Spooky, Wildcat and Zippy to name just a handful of those. Every one of these sounds superb, and typically delivers quite a bit more than most similar alternatives.

I really love John’s enclosure designs and how those have evolved over the years - and the fact that these are all compact edition enclosures. John does make some BB-size variants too - but for me it’s all about the practicality and versatility of those compact fuzzes!